Printing position adjusting device for rotary press

ABSTRACT

A PRINTING POSITION ADJUSTING DEVICE FOR A ROTARY PRESS COMPRISING A TOOTHED WHEEL FIXEDLY SECURED TO ONE PRINTING CYLINDER. A PINION CARRIER BY A SHAFT IN COAXIAL RELATION WITH SAID TOOTHED WHEEL AND ADAPTED TO REVOLVE AROUND SAID TOOTHED WHEEL IN MESH THEREWITH, A MOVABLE AREM SUPPORTED IN COAXIAL RELATION WITH SAID ONE PRINTING CYLINDER, A PLANETARY GEAR CARRIED BY SAID ONE MOVABLE ARM AND IN ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID FIXEDLY SECURED TOOTHED WHEEL AN INTERMEDIATE GEAR IN MESH WITH BOTH OF SAID PLANETARY GEAR AND SAID PINION AND CARRIED BY SAID MOVABLE ARM, A GEAR TRAIN FOR CONNECTING SAID PINION WITH ANOTHER PRINTING CYLINDER, AND MEANS FOR ROCKING WITHIN A PREDETERMINED RANGE OF ANGLE SAID MOVABLE ARM FROM THE EXTERIOR OF THE PRINTING PRESS. BY SUITABLY ROCKING THE MOVABLE ARM, THE POSITION OF THE PLATE CYLINDER IN THE DIRECTION OF THE ROTATION THEREOF RELATIVE TO THE BLANKET CYLINDER IS VARIED, THEREBY ADJUSTING THE PRINTING POSITION OF THE PAPER IN THE LONGITUDINAL DIRECTION THEREOF.

Oct. 5, 19'" TAMAKI KANEKO 5 PRINTING POSITION ADJUSTING DEVICE FOR ROTARY PRESS Filed Aug. 22, 1969 2 Sheen-Shut 1 Oct. 5, 1971 TAMAKl KANEKO 3,610,064

PRINTING POSITION ADJUSTING DEVICE FOR ROINRY PRESS FIIQd Aug. 22, 1969 2 Shoots-Sheet I United States Patent O 3,610,064 PRINTING POSITION ADJUSTING DEVICE FOR ROTARY PRESS Tamaki Kaneko, Tokyo, Japan, assignor to Kabushiki Kaisha Ricoh, Tokyo, Japan Filed Aug. 22, 1969, Ser. No. 852,202 Claims priority, application Japan, Aug. 27, 1968, 43/ 61,293 Int. Cl. F16h /06; B41f 13/24 US. Cl. 74-397 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A printing position adjusting device for a rotary press comprising a toothed wheel fixedly secured to one printing cylinder, a pinion carrier by a shaft in coaxial relation with said toothed wheel and adapted to revolve around said toothed wheel in mesh therewith, a movable arm supported in coaxial relation with said one printing cylinder, a planetary gear carried by said movable arm and in engagement with said fixedly secured toothed wheel an intermediate gear in mesh with both of said planetary gear and said pinion and carried by said movable arm, a gear train for connecting said pinion with another printing cylinder, and means for rocking within a predetermined range of angle said movable arm from the exterior of the printing press. By suitably rocking the movable arm, the position of the plate cylinder in the direction of the rotation thereof relative to the blanket cylinder is varied, thereby adjusting the printing position of the paper in the longitudinal direction thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an offset rotary press and more particularly to a longitudinal printing position adjusting device for an offset printing press.

In the conventional offset printing press, the printing position in the transverse direction of the paper is made at the paper feeding stand upon which a stack of sheets of paper is mounted while the printing position in the longitudinal direction (the direction of advancement of sheet of paper) is carried out by suitably varying the relative position of the blanket cylinder relative to the impression cylinder in the direction of the rotation thereof. For adjusting in the longitudinal direction of the printing position, there has been proposed a device in which a pair of different diameter gears are made in unitary construction and attached to a movable arm so that the adjustment can be carried out by rocking the movable arm. However, this device has a defect that it produces noise during operation because an excess load tends to be applied to the gears.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a device for adjusting the printing position in the longitudinal direction of paper.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for adjusting the printing position which can adjust the printing position even when a printing press is in operation.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a device for adjusting the printing position which can substantially eliminate any defect encountered in the conventional device of the character described.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In brief, the present invention provides a printing position adjusting device comprising a toothed wheel fixedly secured to one printing cylinder, a pinion carried by a shaft in coaxial relation with said toothed wheel and adapted to revolve around said toothed wheel in mesh 3,610,064 Patented Oct. 5, 1971 therewith, a movable ar-m supported in coaxial relation with said one printing cylinder, a planetary gear carried by said movable arm and in engagement with said fixedly secured toothed wheel, an intermediate gear in mesh with both of said planetary gear and said pinion and carried by said movable arm, a gear train for connecting said pinion with another printing cylinder and means for rocking within a predetermined range of angle said movable arm from the exterior of the printing press for adjustment.

According to the present invention, by rocking the movable arm the impression roller is rotated through the gears and the gear train, thereby varying the relative position of the impression cylinder with respect to the blanket cylinder.

A remarkable feature of the present invention is that the printing position adjustment can be accomplished even when the press is in operation without imparting any excess load to any gear. The variation of the above described relative position of the impression cylinder with respect to the blanket cylinder can be suitably controlled by selecting a suitable ratio of the diameter of the toothed wheel fixedly secured to the blanket cylinder to that of a pinion which is in mest both of the toothed wheel and the planetary gear.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more clear from the following description of one illustrative embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of a rotary offset printing press to which is applied the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of one illustrative embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates a side frame of a rotary press; 2, a plate cylinder; 3, a blanket cylinder; 4, an impression cylinder; -5, a paper feed stand which may be moved vertically; 6, a stack of sheets of paper to be printed; 7, a feed roller adapted to feed a sheet of paper one by one; 8, a paper guide member interposed between the impression cylinder 4 and the paper feed stand 5; 9, a plurality of clamping pawls having the construction well known in the art and being disposed in side-by-side relation in the direction of the axial direction of the impression cylinder in opposed relation with the peripheral surface thereof for clamping the leading edge of the sheet of paper feed by the feed roller 7; and 10, a printed paper receiving stand for receiving the printed paper to which is transferred the ink image from the blanket cylinder 3 when the paper passes through the nip between the impression and blanket cylinders 4 and 3.

As shown in FIG. 2, at one end of the blanket cylinder 3 is disposed a toothed wheel 11 in mesh with a toothed wheel (not shown) attached to one end of the impression cylinder. This toothed wheel 11 is so disposed as to rotate relative to the blanket cylinder 3. At the other end of the blanket cylinder 3 is securely fixed a toothed wheel 13 by screws 12 and is in mesh with a toothed wheel (not shown) attached to one end of the plate cylinder 2. Thus, it will be readily seen that the three cylinders (plate, blanket and impression cylinders 2, 3 and 4) are coupled to each other through the toothed wheels and are rotated in the directions indicated by the arrows in FIG. 1. A small diameter gear 15 rotatably carried by a shaft 14 of the blanket cylinder 3 is in mesh with a pinion 16 carried by a shaft extending from the side frame 1 and with an intermediate gear 18 carried by a shaft extending from a movable arm 17. A planetary gear 19 attached to the movable arm 17 is in mesh with both of the gear 13 and the intermediate gear 18. The movable arm 17 is loosely fitted over a boss 20 which in turn is fixedly secured to the side frame 1. The teeth 17a are formed along the arcuate edge whose center is the shaft of the movable arm '17 and are in mesh with a worm 21 which is carried by a shaft 22 extending from the side frame 1. At the end of the shaft 22 remote from the worm 21 is attached an operation knob 23 as best shown in FIG. 1. p

A drive shaft 24 carries a pair of gears 25 and 26 and the gear 25 is in mesh with the pinion 16 while the gear 26 is in mesh with the toothed wheel 11. Thus, when the drive shaft 24 is rotated in the'direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 3, the blanket cylinder 3 to which is securely fixed the toothed wheel 13 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow a through the gear trains consisting of gears 25, 16, 15, 18 and 19 whereas the toothed wheel 11 in mesh with the gear 26 carried by the drive shaft 24 is caused to rotate in the same direction and at the same speed with the blanket cylinder 3 so that the rotation of the toothed wheel 11 is transmitted to the impression cylinder 4 while the rotation of the fixedly secured toothed wheel 13, to the plate cylinder 2- with the same speed with that of the impression cylinder 4.

Next the mode of operation will be described. First all of the cylinders are assumed to be stationary. When the knob 23 is rotated so as to rock the movable arm 17 through the worm 21, thereby rotating around the toothed wheel 13 the planetary gear 19 carried by the movable arm 17 to the position 19A indicated by the broken line in FIG. 3, the gear 18 in mesh with the planetary gear 19 is caused to rotate in the direction indicated by the arrow. The rotation of this gear 18 is transmitted to the toothed wheel 11 through the gears 15", 2 and 26 so that the impression cylinder is rotated. Thus, the impression cylinder is rotated relative to the stationary blanket cylinder 3 so that their relative positions in the direction of the rotation are varied. In this case, this relative displacement between the blanket and impression cylinders is dependent of the ratio of the diameter of the toothed wheel 13 to that of the gear 15. That is, the larger the diiference between the diameters, the greater the realtive displacement.

The relative displacement of the impression cylinder 4 relative to the blanket cylinder 3 means that the positions of the clamping pawls 9 disposed on the side of the impression cylinder are varied so that the relative position of the printing plate clamped around the plate cylinder in contact with the blanket cylinder 3 is varied in the longitudinal direction (the direction of the advancement) of the paper relative to the paper. The above described printing position adjustment has been described as being made during the time when the printing press is stopped, but it will be understood that the same adjustment may be carried out even when the printing press is in operation.

I claim:

1. A printing position adjusting device for a rotary press comprising:

a toothed wheel fixedly secured to one printing cylinder,

a pinion carried by a shaft in coaxial relation with said toothed wheel and adapted to revolve around said toothed wheel in mesh therewith,

a movable arm supported in coaxial relation with said one printing cylinder,

a planetary gear carried by said movable arm and in engagement with said fixedly secured toothed wheel,

an intermediate gear in mesh with both of said planetary gear and said pinion and carried by said movable arm,

a gear train for connecting said pinion with another printing cylinder, and

means for rocking within a predetermined range of angle said movable arm from the exterior of the printing press.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,163,035 6/1939 Grupe 74-395 X 2,700,903 2/ 1955 Bohme 74-395 3,218,969 11/1965 Nagel 101248 X 3,413,920 12/1968 Kaneko et al. 74-397 X LEONARD H. GERIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 10l-248 

